More World War One Etymology

"Tank" (n.2): An armored, gun-mounted vehicle
moving on continuous articulated tracks, late 1915

I've discovered a website that's full of fun.  It's called Etymonline.com.  It provides the history, evolution, and popularization of words and I've discovered it has nice discussions of some of our favorite WWI-connected words and expressions.  Here are some of my favorite World War One entries.

1.  Boche (n.)

"German soldier in World War I," 1914, perhaps from French slang boche "rascal," applied to the Germans; a word of unknown origin. Another theory traces it to French Allemand "German," in eastern French Al(le)moche, altered contemptuously to Alboche by association with caboche, a slang word for "head," literally "cabbage" (compare tete de boche, French for "German" in an 1887 slang dictionary). None of the French terms is older than mid-19c.

2.  cootie (n.)

"body louse," 1917, British World War I slang, earlier in nautical use, said to be from Malay (Austronesian) kutu, the name of some parasitic, biting insect.

3.  conk (v.)

as in conk out, 1918, coined by World War I [American] airmen, perhaps in imitation of the sound of a stalling motor, reinforced by conk (v.) "hit on the head," originally "punch in the nose" (1821), from conk (n.), slang for "nose" (1812), perhaps from fancied resemblance of the nose to a conch (pronounced "conk") shell. Perhaps also imitative: Compare Greek konk, a syllable representing the sound made by a pebble striking the bottom of the (metal) voting urn [William Smith, "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities"].

4. home front (n.)

also homefront, 1918, from home (n.) + front (n.) in the military sense. A term from World War I; popularized (if not coined) by the agencies running the U.S. propaganda effort.

The battle front in Europe is not the only American front. There is a home front, and our people at home should be as patriotic as our men in uniform in foreign lands. [promotion for the Fourth Liberty Loan appearing in U.S. magazines, fall 1918]

5. gold-brick (n.)

"gold in the form of a brick," 1853, from gold (adj.) + brick (n.). Meaning "shirker" is from 1914, World War I armed forces slang, from earlier verb meaning "to swindle, cheat" (1902) from the old con game of selling spurious "gold" bricks (attested by 1881).

6. scrounge (v.)

"to acquire by irregular means," 1915, an alteration of dialectal scrunge "to search stealthily, rummage, pilfer" (1909), which is of uncertain origin. OED reports it probably altered from dialectal scringe "to pry about." Or perhaps it is related to (or a variant of) scrouge, scrooge "push, jostle" (1755, also Cockney slang for "a crowd"), which are probably suggestive of screw, squeeze, etc. Scrounge was popularized in the military during World War I, frequently as a euphemism for "steal." Related: Scrounged; scrounger; scrounging.

7. S.O.L.

initialism (acronym) from shit out of luck (though sometimes euphemised), 1917, World War I military slang. "Applicable to everything from death to being late for mess" [Russell Lord, "Captain Boyd's Battery, A.E.F.," c. 1920]

8.  strafe (v.)

1915, "punish, attack, bomb heavily," picked up by British soldiers in colloquial or humorous use, from German strafen "to punish" (from Proto-Germanic *stræf-) as used in the slogan Gott strafe England "May God punish England," current in Germany c. 1914-16 at the start of World War I. The word was used in English at first for any kind of attack; the meaning "shoot up ground positions from low-flying aircraft" emerged as the main sense by 1942, during the next war. Related: Strafed; strafing.

9. tank (n.2)

"armored, gun-mounted vehicle moving on continuous articulated tracks," late 1915; a special use of tank (n.1).

In "Tanks in the Great War" [1920], Brevet Col. J.F.C. Fuller quotes a memorandum of the Committee of Imperial Defence dated Dec. 24, 1915, recommending the proposed "caterpillar machine-gun destroyer" machines be entrusted to an organization "which, for secrecy, shall be called the 'Tank Supply Committee,' . . ."

In a footnote, Fuller writes, "This is the first appearance of the word 'tank' in the history of the machine." He writes that "cistern" and "reservoir" also were put forth as possible cover names, "all of which were applicable to the steel-like structure of the machines in the early stages of manufacture. Because it was less clumsy and monosyllabic, the name 'tank' was decided on."

Tanks first saw action at Pozieres ridge on the Western Front, Sept. 15, 1916, and the name quickly was picked up by the soldiers. Tank-trap attested from 1920.

10.  toot sweet (adv.)

"right away, promptly," 1917, American English, representing U.S. soldiers' mangled adaptation of French tout de suite "immediately, at once" (de suite = "in sequence"),

Bonus Entry:

World War (n.)

attested by 1898 as a speculation.

If through fear of entangling alliances the United States should return the Philippines to Spain, Mr. Page asserted that the predatory nations would swoop down upon them and a world war would result. [New York Times, Dec. 16, 1898]

Applied to the first one almost as soon as it began in 1914 ("England has Thrown Lot with France in World War" — headline, Pittsburgh Press, Aug. 2, 1914). World War I was coined 1939, replacing Great War as the most common name for it; First World War, World War II, and Second World War all also are from 1939.

Old English had woruldgewinn, woruldgefeoht, both of which might be translated "world war," but with "world" in the sense of "earthly, secular."